| The flavonoids are very abundance in nature. They are consisted in almost every plant species, and many research indicated that flavonoids had multi-biological-activity. It suggested that flavonoid had exogenous hormonal-like function. Semen cuscutae was the traditional medicine in China to treat impotence and seminal emission as a tonic for thousands of years, and it was usually used to treat the hormone absence. Semen cuscutae had the function of nourishing liver and kidney, miscarriage prevention, improving eyesight and relieving diarrhea. It was used for impotence and spermatorrhoea, frequent micturition, blurred vision, enechema, Kidney Deficiency, and vaginal bleeding during pregnancy.The coumarin was the kind of compounds had aroma, was the effective compounds in many plants. It indicated that the coumarin had important bio-activation, and had hormonal-like function in most kind of plants. Cnidium monnieri was traditional used for reinforcing Kidney-yang in China for many years. The Pharmacopoeia of People's Republic of China (Version 2005) specifies Cnidium monnieri had the function of warming kidney and activating Yang action, eliminating dampness and dispelling wind. It was usually employ to cure impotence, morbid leukorrhea, damp arthralgia, lumbago and so on, and could used to treat pudendum eczema, woman pruritus vulvae, trichomonas vaginitis in external use.The object of this study is to investigate the effects of the total flavonoids from semen cuscutae(TFSC) and the total coumarin from Cnidium monnieri(TCCM) on AR expression in male mice. In this experiment, we gained the total flavonoids from semen cuscutae by ethanol circumfluence and Polyamide column chromatography. The total coumarin from Cnidium monnieri was extracted by ethanol circumfluence and Macroporous Adsorption Resin column chromatography. In order to test the effects of the extracts, ICR mice were randomly divided into 8 groups, as normal control group, model control group, methyltestosterone positive control group, Jinkui shen qi wan positive control group, the high dose of TCCM group, the low dose of TCCM group, the high dose of TFSC group and the low dose of TFSC group. Except for the normal control group, hydrocortisone was injected intraperitoneally to make the model of kidney-yang deficiency. These groups were then treated with TFSC, TCCM, methyltestosterone and Jinkui Shenqi Wan, except for the normal control group and model control group. 14 days after administering, testosterone levels in the total serum were analyzed by radioimmunoassay; AR mRNA levels were measured by Real time RT-PCR and protein levels by immunohistochemistry.Results: (1) the ethanol extraction from semen cuscutae was 2.6% after dried, and the TFSC was 57.3% in the ethanol extraction; (2) the TCCM in the ethanol extraction from Cnidium monnieri was 4.3%, and the contents of osthole which was measured by HPLC was 19.9%; (3) the TFSC and the TCCM can restore the hydrocortisone induced lose weight, and improved the kidney-yang deficient symptom; (4) the TFSC and the TCCM can reverse the reduction of testosterone in kidney-yang deficient mice; (5) the TFSC and the TCCM can reverse the hydrocortisone brought reduction of AR mRNA expression, and the expression of AR mRNA was close to normal control group; (6) the effects of the TFSC and the TCCM to the AR protein expression on kidney-yang deficient mice has the same trend to mRNA level, the TFSC and the TCCM treatment may reverse kidney-yang deficiency symptoms by restoring the levels of protein expression in the kidney and testicle.Conclusion: The weight of mice was determined, testosterone levels in the total serum were analyzed by radioimmunoassay, and AR mRNA levels were measured by Real time RT-PCR and protein levels by immunohistochemistry. The results indicated that the TFSC and the TCCM have the effects of reinforcing Kidney-yang, and the mechanism was to increase the contents of testosterone and to improve the expression of AR mRNA and the expression of protein.
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